


Train To Twelve

by allonsysilvertongue



Category: The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Zombie AU, inspired by Train To Busan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 09:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7839592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allonsysilvertongue/pseuds/allonsysilvertongue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Running away from Infected is never easy, and running away from them in a cramped moving train is even more of a challenge but they have to try, to survive. Zombie AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is largely inspired by the Korean zombie movie Train To Busan which I went to watch at the cinema yesterday. It is easily one of the best zombie movies I’ve watched. It’s so brilliant - suspense, action and emotions all packed into it. I still can’t get over how perfect that movie is, it’s the bomb so if you love anything to do with zombies, do yourself a favour and watch Train to Busan if it’s showing at your cinema!
> 
> So anyway, this zombie au is inspired by that movie. I had to write it out and I just want to put it out there first to get a feel if people actually like it.

Effie Trinket walked briskly into the station, pulling her luggage behind her with a bright smile on her face. She glanced around, looking at the people hurrying by and it was odd, she mused, that everyone was oblivious to their surrounding and to each other. She wondered if anyone could tell just by looking at her that she was anxious and brimming with energy. She was, after all, about to take a leap of faith and paved her life into a different direction.

Locating the right platform, Effie walked on, her purse swinging from her arm and just as she turned the corner, a young woman collided into her.

"Watch it," the woman snarled.

"Excuse me," Effie clucked her tongue at the other woman's tone.

She glared at her and gave her a once over. The streak of red dye was distasteful. Effie would rather trade in all of her expensive fur than have to go through that dye job. The dress that clung too tightly on the young woman's body drew the leering gaze of men as they passed by her.

"I was watching where I was going," Effie huffed. "The same cannot be said about you. Perhaps, if you were to take your nose out of your phone, you will be more aware of your surroundings."

The woman sneered, half bemused.

"Effie…. Now, what kind of name is that?" she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Effie gasped.

"How rude! How did you know – Oh."

 _Of course,_ she thought foolishly.

There was a tag on her red luggage.

"Where's Car 4? Do you know?"

"That way," Effie pointed towards the front of the train.

The young woman answered with a nod and without a word, went off in the direction.

Effie checked her ticket again just to be certain that she was _not_ in Car 4 together with that rude woman. She let out a breath of relief and went into the opposite direction towards Car 9.

"I'm sorry, kid. You can't bring this on board the train. Regulations."

"But I won't be using it. Look, I'll keep the arrows lock in here and the bow -"

Effie glanced in the direction of the girl with her dark hair neatly braided down her back, arguing with the train employee.

"I understand but you are still not allowed to bring this on board as carry on. This constitutes a weapon. You will have to check this in with your luggage."

The girl sighed indignantly but released possession of her bow to the officer. She boarded Car 9 and with her gone, Effie approached the officer to hand over her luggage.

"Handle them carefully, please," she instructed.

Effie found her seat – _49 –_ and sat down. The girl from earlier was already seated two rows in front of her.

A quick check on her wrist watch showed her that there was still half an hour left before the train was schedule to depart. With nothing to do, she rummaged through her purse for her make-up bag and just as she was fixing her make-up, a young couple walked in.

Effie glanced up distractedly to look at them and did a double take. The man was strikingly handsome with sea green eyes, bronze hair and warm smile he directed her way when their eyes met. The girl whose hand he was holding was sweet and gentle looking even if she seemed a little nervous and Effie wondered if it had anything to do with her pregnancy.

 _Seven, maybe eight months,_ Effie guessed. _Probably due soon._

As it turned out, their seat was on the same aisle as hers and wasn't that a relief? It would be a long journey and she would rather not be stuck in close proximity with a screaming, crying baby. She liked children but if she had to deal with a crying child, she wasn't sure she would be in the best mood when she finally reached her destination.

"Do you want the window seat, Annie?" the man asked, attentive to her needs.

The ringing of her phone startled her and she flushed crimson when the dark haired girl turned around at her choice of ringtone. Effie pulled out her phone and the name reflected on her screen brought a smile to her lips.

This was all for him. The reason she was on this train, the reason she was nervous and yet, terribly thrilled about her future. They were going to give this a try; give what was between them a proper relationship. It would no longer just be a few visits here and there or texting because he was terrible at it and there would no longer be early morning phone calls for her (night for him). There would be no more intense pangs of loneliness when she missed him or crave his touch.

She was going to leave the City and she had never been so sure of anything else in her life.

"Haymitch," she answered the call in a delighted tone.

His gruff voice was the best thing she had heard since she woke up this morning.

"You on the train?"

"Yes, yes. I just boarded. Do you have the house ready for me?"

Right at that instance, Effie imagined him rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, 'course."

"You are a liar," she accused with a laugh. "I bet my buttons that I will arrive to see that you've only done the bare minimum."

"I cleaned up – that's a hell of a lot of effort," he muttered defensively, "got rid of all the bottles and shit."

"Well, I supposed, your effort is admirable," she teased.

"That's more like it."

"I miss you."

"Yeah, me too," he answered after a beat. "Listen, how many luggage you've got 'cause I ain't gonna get a new wardrobe specially for you. Don't get any ideas."

"Haymitch," she gasped. "We talked about redecorating and purchasing new furniture. We've been through this."

"Nah, don't remember havin' that conversation. So? Luggage… How many?"

"I sold everything, Haymitch. I only have what I need with me - one luggage, one _huge_ luggage, though."

There was a pause on his end. It still sounded surreal to her when she said it out loud. She had sold her house, her car, quit her job and closed her bank accounts in the City.

"This is really happening, isn't it, Haymitch?"

"It will work, you know…" he told her quietly, sounding so much more sober than she had heard him in a while.

"I know."

"I want you here," he told her as if he was afraid that she might change her mind.

He had a reason to be worried. He had waited for her for years and the fight that came from it had been ugly and horrid, and yet, he was always there at every turn, remaining steadfast like an old rock in a stream.

"I will be there, Haymitch. I will. We'll see each other again very soon."

"Good."

"You will meet me at the train station. Do you promise?"

Haymitch snorted.

"Might fall asleep so better not make any promises…"

"You are impossible," she huffed. "I will text you and give you a few calls when I'm reaching so you will have absolutely no reason not to be there when my train reaches the station in Twelve."

"You do that, sweetheart," Haymitch chuckled. "See you in a few hours."

"I love you," she said just before he hung up.

She ended the call and kept her phone back in her purse.

"Husband?" the young man asked, making small talk.

"Oh, no," Effie shook her head. "No, he's my… He's – "

"Ah, I understand," his eyes twinkled. "Finnick, by the way, Finnick Odair. This is my wife, Annie."

"It's nice to meet you," Effie shook his proffered hand and smiled at his wife. "Newlywed, I supposed? You have that glow that all newlyweds have."

"10 months ago," he laughed. "I had a month to get used to being a husband. Now, I'm going to be a dad. Crazy, right? I'm excited about meeting my baby and all, but still, crazy."

As other passengers began to board the train, walking down the small aisle looking for their seats, Effie lost herself to the magazine she brought with her.

"Don't dawdle."

Effie looked up to see a man with silver hair dressed in expensive suit, a handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket. The little boy he was speaking to ran off to his parent and the man, sensing Effie's gaze, turned towards her and smile.

It made her shudder. There was something unnerving about the smile and the cologne he wore was so strong, it made her gag.

"Don't watch the news, Annie," she heard Finnick whispering to his wife. "You'll stress yourself out."

Effie turned towards the mounted television that was provided in each car. The news channel was reporting pockets of violence in the city. She caught glimpses of cars on fire and police with batons and shield forming a protective line.

"What are they rioting about? Shouldn't they report that, too?"

"I don't think the cause if known yet," Effie answered the dark-haired girl. "The important thing to do is to get these uncivilized behaviors under control and arrest the instigators."

"Will this affect our journey?" Annie asked.

"It better not," the girl muttered. "I got to get home."

"Where's home?" Finnick asked.

"Twelve," the girl glanced over her seat to see who was talking to her. "Where are you going?"

"Home, too," Finnick smiled. "In Four."

She nodded and her eyes drifted to Effie.

"You're from here. I can tell."

"Yes," Effie nodded or at least, she would be from here. Where she was going, it would hopefully, be permanent and if the girl was going to Twelve, it would mean that she would be crossing paths with her often enough soon. "I am Effie. You are?"

"Katniss," she answered. "You look familiar. Have I ever seen you before?"

"I – " Effie studied the girl. "I don't think so, no."

"That's not right. I'm sure I've seen you before," Katniss insisted. "You ever been to Twelve?"

"Yes," Effie nodded.

Of course she had. She was there to visit Haymitch but at Twelve, she spent most of her time in his house and in his bed.

Katniss' gaze lingered on her a few seconds longer before she gave up trying to figure out and slumped back in her seat.

"Is this violence contained only in the City?" Effie wondered.

Outside, the whistle blew one last time to signal that the train would be departing soon.

"Let's hope so," Finnick answered and grinned, "I want a smooth train journey."

Nobody on board the train realized that seconds before the doors were shut, a man with bite marks on his ankle and skin so pale that the blue veins were clearly visible had just boarded Car 13, his body infected and savaged by biological pathogen.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! I had a sudden inspiration to continue this story at work. It's short but pls bear with me.

** Chapter 2 **

The racket outside drew Haymitch Abernathy out of his house, shirtless and in crumpled pants. The backdoor swung opened with a creak and he stuck his neck out, looking at the pen.

The unmistakable orange fur of a fox explained it all. Haymitch grabbed a shovel, the nearest item leaning against the wall, and hit it against the upended metal pail. The long noise startled it enough for it to turn its head towards Haymitch who repeated his actions and stomped his foot loudly. It worked enough that the fox scampered back into the woods.

The damage was done, though. A goose lay dead in the pen with the white of its feather stained red.

“Hey, Haymitch!”

Glancing up, he saw Peeta waving in his direction. Haymitch raised his hand in acknowledgment and nodded at his neighbour. As far as neighbours goes, Haymitch liked this one. They spent some nights sitting on Haymitch’s porch as he drank and the boy talked. Peeta was polite and Haymitch liked him best because of the pastries he often dropped at his house.

“One more day,” Peeta grinned. “Katniss is probably already on the train.”

 _So is Effie,_ Haymitch added, not that the boy would know that, of course.

Now that he thought about it, Katniss and Effie were probably in the same train headed to Twelve.

 “Yeah,” Haymitch chuckled, shooting him a bemused look at the apparent excitement.

Peeta had been counting the days until he could meet his fiancé again. The girl had taken up a short contract to coach archery to a group of children in the city and was finally coming home now that the contract had ended.

“I never thanked you for… you know, introducing her to me.”

“No big deal,” he shrugged. “I’ll come with you to the station tomorrow.”

The boy perked up, clearly thinking that his interest in meeting Katniss with him at the station was something unselfish but he had promised to meet Effie there, and it was time to introduce her to the girl he had, in a way, raised and her fiancé along with it.

Effie knew of them, of course, she knew them from the stories he told and she had always wanted to meet them but they were his and for a long while, introducing her to them would have made it real. Back then, he wasn’t prepared for it and it had been one of the many reasons they argued especially when she found out that they had no knowledge of her at all. But now… Now that she had given up everything for him, he wanted to share every aspect of his life with her, including these kids.

It scared him, naturally, but he wanted to try, and he wouldn’t want to try it with anyone but her.

He had screwed up but this was his chance. He would introduce them all to each other at the same time. It would work, he convinced himself. Katniss might find her odd but Peeta would be nice about it.

"Alright,” Peeta smiled. “We’ll leave right after breakfast.”

He muttered something about him being too eager but the boy merely laughed quietly and returned back to his house. Haymitch went round to the front of his house to pick up the milk when he saw three armed Peacekeepers walking in the direction of his house.

There were two men in blue protective suit walking behind them.

 _Hazmat suit,_ he noted, frowning at the peculiarity of them being here.

He waited, hands propped on the fence until they came over. He had never liked Peacekeepers. They kept the peace, sure, but they do so harshly.

“What do you want?” Haymitch demanded, coming to stand at the gate to bar them from entering the premises of his house.

“We are aware that you keep geese,” a Peacekeeper said. “We need to inspect the live stocks. Move aside.”

Haymitch raised an eyebrow, finding their request downright odd.

“What for?”

They had never bothered about what he kept in his yard before.

"Let us in, Mr. Abernathy."

"Look - " he tried to say before he was cut off.

"You do not have a permit for them."

Now, _that_ was new.

"What? Like there's a law that says I gotta have one," Haymitch sneered. “Get outta here.”

They didn’t. He was promptly shoved aside.

“You’re fuckin’ trespassing. This is my fucking property,” he snarled, catching up with them in two long strides.

“Back of his house,” the Peacekeeper gestured to the men in hazmat suit.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Sir,” the taller hazmat guy, Haymitch had quietly labeled as H-1, turned to address him. His voice was muffled by the protective suit. “You need to step aside. There is a possible bird flu outbreak in the region.”

There were rumours coming down from District 11 that live stocks were being put down; talks of mad cow disease and bird flu.

“No, that’s fucking bullshit,” he argued. He couldn’t let them get in there. He had a dead goose from a fox attack and they would use that as an excuse. “You ain’t killing my birds.”

He tried to grab one of them by the arm. Not his smartest move because a Peacekeeper knocked his temple hard with the butt of his rifle. Haymitch staggered, blinking and shaking his head to get his focus back.

Now he was pissed.

In his house, the muted television was showing report of mysterious death in District Four.

 


	3. Chapter 3

** Chapter 3 **

Car 4 was _boring_.

There was no other way to describe it. The two businessmen in front of her had been discussing the riots and the possibility of it affecting the import of their silks into the city. The louder they talk, they more Johanna rolled her eyes.

There was a cranky toddler whose mother was making an admirable effort trying to calm her down. She sent an apologetic smile Johanna’s way once in a while. Johanna didn’t mind it so much, a cranky kid was better than two whining men, in her opinion.

“Profit margin for the second quarter of the year is – “

“For fuck’s sake, who the fuck cares?” Johanna grumbled loud enough for them to hear.

She stood up from her seat and shot them a look before making her way to the toilet which as luck would have it was occupied. Down in Car 5, she saw a man leaving the toilet so she made her way.

“You’re the hot chick from Car 4,” he commented.

She looked at him, head to toe and quickly dismissed the man. He was definitely _not_ her type with crumbs stuck on a beard which was a hot mess to begin with, the yellowed teeth and beady eyes.

“Plenty of room in there for us both,” he suggested, jerking his head at the cubicle he just left. He eyed her just as she had eyed him.

Placing a hand on his chest, Johanna sneered. Without another word, she yanked him out, clearing the pathway for her to walk. His face clearly showed the surprise at that sudden display of aggression and strength.

“Fuck off,” she flipped him off.

She slammed the door to the cubicle, grumbling to himself about men and their inability to keep the toilet clean. Sure, it was a public toilet and no one had the decency to keep the place clean as they would if it were their own, but still, they should at least try to _aim_ properly.

 _Disgusting,_ she thought.                                                        

When she was done, she debated about going back to her car and sleeping off the rest of journey or doing something else entirely.

She had never had sex on a train, perhaps the guy from earlier was on to something. Except to do that, she would need to find someone she actually wouldn’t mind doing it with. _That_ could be fun.

She began walking down the aisles of Car 6, mentally judging the people she laid her eyes on.

 _Married_ , she dismissed the first man she saw.

 _Likely underage_ , she thought of another.

 _Boring,_ she snickered at the brown-haired man with his Sudoku puzzle.

 _Looks uptight, could be fun to loosen her up_ , she eyed the woman.

She made her way over, thinking of something clever as an opener when something loud thudded against the train. She exchanged a look with the red-haired woman. Johanna turned, angling her body towards the window of the door. There was a startling red handprint of the glass.

A sickening feeling settled in her stomach. That could only mean blood.

She moved closer towards the door, peering out into the train vestibule. She thought she saw someone limping towards Car 5, back where she had used its toilet. With the bloody handprint and the limp, she figured someone might be injured.

Johanna opened the door with the full intention of going to Car 5 to render her assistance when the beady-eyed man from earlier suddenly stood in her path. There was something inherently wrong with him.

He was walking with a sloppy limp, his hand extended in front of him.

“Help me,” he rasped.

She would have helped him. She would have if it weren’t for the look in his eyes. He looked…. _Hungry_ , as if she was a meal to him, and he looked manic.

He stumbled forward and Johanna took a step back. She kept moving back into Car 6 which made the occupants in the car looked from her to the man stumbling into their compartment, blood dripping from his arm.

“What happened to him?” the guy asked, now that his attention was finally drawn away from the Sudoku puzzle.

“I’ll get you a medic,” Johanna said, as calmly as she could. “Just – Just sit down. There’s an empty  - holy shit!”

Someone – or rather, _something_ – had burst forth from behind the man. It latched on his back, causing the man to fall face first. He yelped and twitched, but whatever it was on his back held in place and as if that wasn’t the worst of it, two more came forward, attacking the red-haired woman and the married man Johanna had checked out earlier.

Those things were not moving the way an injured human would, she thought in a panic. They had sunk their teeth on those people’s flesh, pulling and biting as if they were…. _They’re eating them,_ she realised in horror.

The man with a chuck of flesh missing from him shoulder turned towards his screaming wife. Johanna could only watch this with mounting terror.

“Run, please,” he managed to plead before his body jerked forward to grab her arm, and then she was lost.

Johanna didn’t stop to think. She turned and ran into the next car one that was full of school children. She must have been a sight, wild eyed, short burst of breaths because they were all staring at her.

Then a girl with dark skin, innocent brown eyes and curly hair, started screaming.

“Rue, get away!” someone else screamed at her.

Johanna reacted. She grabbed the girl by her collar and dragged her away from the door towards the far end of the door that would bring them to Car 8. Rue struggled, stopping to look behind her.

One of the classmates had fallen. The bite mark on his leg was clearly visible with a bleeding head wound from where he had knocked his head going down. Johanna thought he was dead when he suddenly lifted his head and arch his back violently.

Rue started screaming.

  _His spine should have broken. His spine should have broken,_ and yet, he stood up. His gait was different. He stopped for a second, as if assessing his surrounding but then he moved, he moved fast, just as the man had when he attacked his own wife.

“We have to get out,” Johanna said, pushing the girl in front of her.

“Shut the door, Thresh!” another student shouted. “Shut the goddamn door.”

“He’s my cousin,” the girl was screaming. “Please, we have to get Thresh.”

Johanna glanced behind her but the decision was taken out of her hand at the sight of the cabin. All she heard was screams of the children, huddled together as they began to attack one another.

“No, stop!”

Rue had dashed back, picking up a baseball bat off the floor.

Johanna grabbed her by the waist, both of them falling down in between Cars 7 and 8.

“What are you planning to do?” she panted. “Beat them all to death?”

As the train rocked on the tracks, they struggled to get up on their feet, losing balance each time they tried to stand.

“They’re coming,” Rue gasped, staring at a space behind Johanna. “Oh my god, Thresh….”

That was when Johanna felt something pulling her by the ankle as she tried to stand. She fell back down again, fighting now not to be pulled into the mob of… She didn’t even know what they were but she couldn’t be caught under them or she would lose a fighting chance.

Johanna kicked and screamed, pushing their faces away from her, somehow knowing that whatever it was she should not let them bite her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the little girl who couldn’t be more than twelve, swinging her bat violently, knocking them in the back, at the neck and on the head, anywhere she could hit.

The screamed lodged in Johanna’s throat when she saw an eyeball rolled in front of her from the force of Rue’s hit and yet, the boy whose eye was dislodged was _still_ moving as if it meant nothing.

Johanna clawed at anything that tried to touch her, trying her best to escape the gritting and moaning. She stretched, her fingers brushing against something cold and metallic.

If she could just get it….

Johanna grunted. Her muscles were burning and if they didn’t bite her first, she would likely suffocate.

All of the scenarios running through her head were horrifying because this was not how she planned to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder, Effie and the rest of the merry gang is in Car 9. Johanna is now two cars away. *Cue dramatic music*


	4. Chapter 4

** Chapter 4 **

Haymitch stood by the geese pen, shoulders tensed and fist clenched at his side. Peeta was next to him, having come out of his house at the commotion.

“We should bury them,” the boy suggested. "It'll start to smell if we don't and if they really did have the bird flu then - "

"They didn't," Haymitch cut off. "I don't know what bullshit is going on but something's happening somewhere and the authorities are being … It's suspicious."

The National Environment Agency had never given them any problem, much less pay house visit. For them to suddenly appear in their hazmat suits and hose down his geese with chemicals made him cautiously wary that there was something deeper going on.

His geese were all dead within minutes. If it weren't for the brutal manner that they were killed, Effie would have been glad, he thought shrewdly. She had never liked those geese.

"This one was attacked?" Peeta asked, prodding the goose at the far end of the fence.

"Yeah, found a fox this mornin', must have been what attacked it. Was gonna get rid of it when the Peacekeepers came."

He went round the house towards the small shed and grabbed two shovels, throwing one of it to Peeta. They started the arduous task of digging a hole and once in a while, Haymitch's gaze strayed towards the boy's prosthetic leg. Peeta would never complain which was why Haymitch was keeping an eye out. If it proved too much, he would ask the boy to stop.

"Might as well take the damn pen down," Haymitch muttered. "Don't think I'll be keeping any more fowls from now."

Effie was moving in anyway and it would be easier for everyone involved not to have the geese if she was just going to spend her time complaining like she had before.

She always had a lot to say. The first time they met years before, she had been complaining about the lacklustre refreshment at their self-help meeting – hers for sleeping pills addiction and him, for his dependency on alcohol.

Haymitch had found her arrogant and difficult, and from the moment she propped her hands on her hips to stare him down when he made a dig at her appearance, he knew he was going to keep coming back to those damned meetings if it meant crossing paths with her.

"Son of a bitch," Haymitch cursed loudly when a movement from the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

He stared as the goose, supposedly dead by a fox attack, staggered and stood on its feet. It unfurled its good wing while the broken wing hung limply by its side.

Without much thought, Haymitch took a step closer.

"I thought you said it was dead," Peeta stared.

"It should be dead. It was," Haymitch frowned. "It was dead when I checked it this morning and even if the fox bite didn't kill it, then the chemicals should have. Somethin' ain't right."

He glanced around but all the other geese were as lifeless as they had been when the peacekeepers left. Turning his attention back to the goose in front of him, Haymitch took note of its glassy eyes and its jerky movement.

Haymitch crouched and made a clucking noise with his tongue, like he used to when he announced his presence during feeding time. The goose turned its head and then launched itself on Haymitch, its sharp teeth inches away from his nose.

In a bid to defend himself, Haymitch instinctively went for its neck, holding it away even as it fought to bite.

Peeta swung his shovel, knocking the bird off Haymitch and when it was on the ground, he brought his shovel down on its head for good measure.

"What the fuck," Haymitch heaved a breath, panting as he pushed himself up.

"It's safe to say that's not the bird flu or whatever else they're claiming it to be," Peeta said breathlessly.

XxX

Effie turned the page of the magazine, humming a tune under her breath. The quiet talks of Finnick and his wife, the live news update on the television and the slightly clipped tone of the silver haired man whose name Effie learnt to be Coriolanus as he was talking on the phone became a soothing background noise in Car 9.

Once in a while, she would check her phone for any messages Haymitch might have left her but there was none which was unsurprising from a bad texter like himself but still, it was a habit of hers to keep checking.

Effie flipped the last page with a sigh. It was the second magazine she completed, and since she only had three with her, if she did not slow down, she would soon run out of reading materials.

She fired a quick message to Haymitch to let him know that she was thinking of him and that they had just left District Two which meant, there were still a few more hours to go.

Just as she stood up to make her way over to Car 10 where the cafeteria was located, a woman barreled towards their car. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, the woman was covered in blood and grime with a metal bar gripped tight in her hand.

She burst into their car, pushing a young girl clutching a baseball bat in front of her. Effie’s gaze darted to the dirty bet. It was wet and sticky, and Effie tried not to think about what it could possibly be or _how_ it got there.

“What is this?” Effie demanded.

The tone of her voice caught the attention of others and soon, most of them were on their feet, looking at the scene curiously.

Ignoring her completely, the woman shoved the girl deeper into their car and she stumbled on her feet, looking around with wide, fearful eyes. Being the person nearest to the door, Katniss grabbed the girl and held her steady on her feet.

“We have to lock the door,” she whispered.

“Lock the fuckin’ door,” the woman directed that command to Finnick.

Effie thought she recognised her. She had seen the woman from somewhere before but with her face dirty like that, it was difficult to tell.

“If you do not leave us be, I will call security,” Coriolanus announced, looking coldly at them. “This is not the place to _beg_.”

“What’d you say, kid, if we feed this one to the monsters out there?” the woman asked.

The girl stared at her, too shocked by now to give her thoughts, much less talk.

“Do you know who I am?” the man demanded. “I am Coriolanus Snow and – “

“I don’t give a fuck and if you have to introduce yourself that way then it’s a bit clear that you ain’t well-known as you think you are. _I’m_ Johanna fucking Mason, and I’m asking you to lock the fucking door if you all don’t want to die.”

"Hey," Finnick stepped forward with a frown. "You're scaring my wife."

Johanna looked over his shoulder where Annie was clutching the back of Finnick's shirt, watching the exchange.

"You should be scared," Johanna spoke to Annie. "Because what I saw out there, it's like nothing I've ever seen before. I don't know what the fuck's happening but we need to get off this train at the next stop."

 


End file.
